Marieya’s Assignment

(Approximate story word count: 2000 words. Estimated reading time: 20 minutes.)

Darkness claimed Marieya Ebontide. Surrounding her were illusions of dragons, phoenix, and the Demon Lord of Conquest. All challenges she was preparing to face down to the best of her ability, to prove that she had moved past her worries, doubts, and had grown into a powerful adventurer.

She stood firm, smirking in the face of danger for the first time in a while as every foe before her fell. Feeling pride at her expertise and prowess. Suddenly, a bright light shined through the darkness, piercing into her sensitive eyes, blinding her as everything went white and…

Wait.

No.

That is just the sun.

Mary London was just dreaming about her Dungeons & Dragons game again, Marieya Ebontide was but a character who faced such hardships. She did not need to worry about any sort of difficulty in her own life, and so settled back down into her bed.

There was just one thing stopping her from sleeping again.

“Oh sweet mother of fuck I have an assignment due today!”

Launching herself out of bed, catapulting a used plastic plate onto the floor as her extremely thick duvet was tossed aside, she darted over to her very disorganised desk. Used mugs, trading cards, and energy drink bottles of various fullness were left either side of a well-loved laptop.

As Mary’s course was video game development, so was the laptop’s primary purpose in life. It had survived several knocks, slams, and even undergone a full motherboard replacement when it had decided to die suddenly, but it still carried on.

“Come on, come on, come on, LOAD!”, she screamed as the poor computer went through a painfully slow boot cycle, grabbing and shaking some of the bottles to determine which one was worth taking a swig from until she eventually just necked the contents of a few of them, satisfying both her craving and withdrawal symptoms.

After a prolonged period of time, Mary had managed to get into her operating system and was able to open the Harmony engine. The project was mostly completed, all it needed were a few finishing touches, some code comments added and it would be ready for-

“Project files corrupted. Attempts to recover from backup files failed. Project cannot be opened.”

-well that is unfortunate.

A stunned silence was paired with a shocked expression on Mary’s face, weeks of panicked work had just completely gone down the toilet with no chance of getting anything submittable together in time. Jitters of both anxiety and caffeine set in as the girl tried to figure out what to do.

Eventually she just sighed and got out her phone, texting her Student Wellbeing Mentor and long-suffering dungeon master, Elizabeth. The message was incoherent, rambly, and was totally not a cry for help disguised under interesting word choice, but Ellie was used to dealing with Mary’s breakdowns, the two having talked when the latter broke down crying in a study room during first year.

One quick shower and some solid food later, Mary had calmed down somewhat, though she was still checking her phone every few seconds to see if Ellie had texted back yet. A soft vibration indicated a message had arrived, which Mary checked with anxious anticipation.

“Got the letter drawn up. You get another week to try to recover the project to the best of your ability, but the lecturers are understanding generally. Booked you in with Tobias for another addiction session – please attend this time, okay?”

Mary grumbled as she read the text, appreciative she had some more time to try salvage her project but begrudging the fact she was having to endure another help session, she was not that bad!

“Man I need a drink,” she said, finding the last not-empty bottle of energy drink to finish off, taking a long deep sigh after swigging it all. Deciding to ignore the increasing intensity of her heart palpitations, she went to get dressed and attempt to convince normal people she was not a walking disaster.

To achieve this, her outfit of choice was the same thing she wore every day. An oversized black band hoodie, a simple black pleat skirt, black dance tights, and black ankle boots. Her mussed but clean white hair provided a sharp contrast to her “please do not perceive me” outfit, brushing it out gently before pulling some of it into a high ponytail, letting the rest fall across her shoulders.

She checked her phone, opening up her messaging app and checking the group chat she was in with the rest of her tabletop group. They had all met via Elizabeth’s game, facilitated as part of an ongoing university effort to reduce stress and promote student relationships, although given all bar one individual in this game frequented her office and her inbox, the first goal might still need to be achieved.

MaryMumbles: “Lunch anyone? Craving burgies rn.”

PackTacticsArt: “Nah, taking a lazy day. Stayed up till 5am doing commissions cause I forgot time was a thing.”

SecretlyAnOstrich: “Got a lecture coming up, and the sanctuary needs me urgently after. Have fun :)”

GoinGrey: “Working all day today. Someone demolished a section of the library so I’m stuck repairing bookshelves.”

MaryMumbles: “Alrighty then, enjoy your days everyone. Means no one is around to talk me out of buying more energy juice!”

Elizabeth83: “I literally just booked you an addiction meeting.”

PotterLastHorcrux: “Speaking of meetings, I’m on my way up to your office.

Elizabeth83: “This is the third time today. Why now?”

Sensing Harry was about to explain something incriminating again, Mary quickly set the group chat to mute. Harry, short for Harriett, was one of her closest friends at university, if just for the amount of trouble they both respectively got into meant they were frequently waiting outside various support offices, which was where they established their rapport. 

Harry was not a troublemaker per say, but he was not at university for the enriching academic experience it provided. The choice of a business degree had helped him develop his side ventures into more sustainable organisations. Some legitimate, such as his weekly student mindfulness tea meetup, and some less than legitimate, including a minor investment in an essay mill.

You did not hear that from Mary though.

Despite being one of the most attended universities in the city, Archvale University did not have dedicated on-campus living. Instead various blocks of flats were established within walking distance of the main collection of buildings with the city centre just a couple of minutes further.

After those couple of minutes, Mary was in burger paradise. Archvale was a business hub with several technology studios and product design agencies in addition to being a major student town, meaning there was no shortage of either fast food or more refined dining experiences.

However, the latter was not the craving right now. After a morning of panic, nerves, and jitters all being made worse by the amount of caffeine ingested so early on, Mary needed the familiar comfort of something greasy, kind of mushy, and loaded with cheese.

Being early enough in the day, the nondescript burger place had not many people around. Some families enjoying an early lunch, night shift workers taking in an unconventional breakfast, and students like Mary who needed the comfort right now. 

Despite this lack of customers, Mary used the self-service kiosk all the same, because talking to people right now did not seem fun. 

Mary’s loyalty app on her phone had a concerning number of points built up, and now seemed like a good moment to get some of them used up. Two extra-large cheese burgers with bacon and extra gherkin, two portions of onion rings, and a massive bag of jalapeno cheese bites, with a milkshake to wash it down.

The order was completed at a reasonable pace, and Mary took it to the upstairs seating area to get some more privacy, picking a table close to a large bay window so she could people watch as she ate. Despite the tray being loaded with food, it was all empty calories, so it disappeared fairly quickly, leaving just the milkshake to casually slurp on.

Given the stresses of the day thus far, Mary felt like she wanted to do some writing as she let her food settle. Her bulky laptop was too cumbersome to be able to carry around to cafes and restaurants, but her aPad had stayed by her side through thick and thin. The design was sleek and elegant, with a minimalist shark logo on the shimmering silver back.

Navigating through folders, eventually Mary came to the bulk folder in which their collective writings are stored. The majority of them were character stories, but she also had review-style articles she had written, some more needlessly detailed than others.

Unfortunately, the ideas were not flowing right away. Despite being confronted with at least four work-in-progress stories, Mary had no desire to work on any of them, and if the inspiration was not flowing, then it was not right to try to force the work to happen.

Instead she chose to read through an old story of hers, one of the most emotionally intense she had ever written. “Marieya’s Emancipation”, the story of how her character had to fight against her friends to… save…

No…

It was… her who did that?

That does not sound right. Marieya is a character.

But she could feel the burning sensations described in the story.

Not just experiencing the writing, she was able to feel everything as written. As if it had actually happened to her.

It can not have happened though. It was just a tabletop game.

More memories? Dragons. Undead. Phoenixes.

We did what in a homeless shelter?!

Panic began to set in around Mary, sensations and thoughts flooding her mind, threatening to overwhelm her very being as she sweated within her clothes, feeling fire brewing within her very soul.

Then, nothing.

A pleasant mist descended upon Mary’s mind, obscuring what had come to the surface and letting it sink back into the fantasy the mist had created.

These were just stories.

They were acted out in a tabletop game.

There is no one called Marieya Ebontide.

Her heart rate and body temperature returning to normal, Mary closed her writing folder and went to finish off her milkshake, the cool & refreshing taste helping to further ease the heat she had been feeling.

Putting the aPad back away into her bag, she disposed of her tray and used wrappers properly before leaving the burger place. A soothing rain had rolled over the city, nothing too intense, just a light drizzle. Mary’s hoodie had seen all sorts of weather, and with the hood pulled up it acted well enough as a raincoat.

In her pocket she felt her phone buzzing. The mute she had put in place on the group chat had expired, and messages were now flowing once more, including Elizabeth trying to get people organised for the next Dungeons & Dragons session.

Elizabeth83: “So does Tuesday work for people?”

SecretlyAnOsterich: “Could be at the sanctuary but I’ll try be available! :D”

GoinGrey: “Late shift that day, would be difficult to make it.”

PackTacticsArt: “Might be awake? I dunno, will see.”

PotterLastHorcrux: “Jury duty”

MaryMumbles: “That addiction session you booked me onto.”

Elizabeth83: “How about Friday?”

As Elizabeth and the others tried to resolve the infinite number of scheduling conflicts that came with being university students trying to organise a hobby, Mary took a quick detour through the budget supermarket that was a few minutes walk from her flat. 

An energy drink problem could have been expensive, but it was a good thing that this place did one litre bottles of the stuff for cheap… intense amounts of chemicals that were bad for the system notwithstanding. Mary needed the help.

She still had that assignment to try salvage.

Inspiration

If Marieya stories give me a whole range of emotions to work with and play off, the one that would describe this best (for both reader and writer) is confusion. I’ll try my best to clear everything up.

So as part of the Midgard campaign, in order to power-level a bit outside of the main game world, our DM presented us with an extraplanar portal that led to a variety of worlds/settings. We could have picked Castle Ravenloft, the Nostromo, or even the Queen Anne’s Revenge.

What we ended up selecting partially through me realising what one of the worlds could lead to and press ganging the party into picking it, was a modern setting. Specifically, we had been brought into a City of Mist from… City of Mist. The moment we arrived in the world, we became Sleepers, unaware of our own power and given false memories as completely normal university students.

This was why I pushed for going into the modern settings. Since about three months after Midgard started, I had a stupid idea of writing a university alternate universe (AU) but it never came to fruition for various reasons. Thanks to some hyperactive pitch techniques, the party accepted the idea and thus, Mary London was born.

Her name is a joke based off the fact that “Marieya Ebontide” is basically just “noun place” as a fantasy name. The rest of her personality though…

…let’s just say I was not a shining paragon of a person during university for several reasons. 

I am not really embellishing anything when it comes to the energy drink habits I describe in the story, I frequently downed bottles of cheap stuff which was then mixed with empty calorie lunches from Burger King. The waistline effects of these habits I’m still feeling today.

But regardless, despite using a lot of self-callouts as the roleplay prompts, I have a lot of fun playing Mary, and I love the characterisations that the rest of the party have given their completely normal university students.